Read Online Dog Gone by Carole Poustie - Free Book Online Page B

behind her. She picked up a bunch of keys from her desk and, for an awful moment, I thought she was going to lock it.
    Suddenly, I had a bright idea. I scrambled across the room, bumping into two girls as they headed out to the corridor. ‘Miss Beech!’ I called, as I made it between her and her office door. ‘I’m not that keen on basketball, so I was wondering if I could stay inside to eat my lunch and then do my homework on the school computer? My Gran’s only got an old typewriter.’
    â€˜Well, that’s very noble of you, Ish, but I’m afraid the school rules don’t allow students to be in classrooms without a teacher present. And I’m umpiring the basketball match,’ said Miss Beech, and put the keys in her pocket. ‘Just write your story out by hand and you can type it up on the computer in your free time tomorrow.’ She looked at her watch and gave my shoulder a little nudge in the direction of the corridor. ‘Right – off you go, then.’
    She picked up her lunch from her desk and headed off towards the staff room without locking either door. Finally, a bit of luck!
    I fiddled around in my bag, pretending to get my lunch out. When the corridor was clear, I slipped back into the classroom and closed the door. This was going to be easy. My luck had changed. Everyone was out on the basketball court.
    I opened the door into Miss Beech’s office and quickly closed it behind me. I looked around for the tests. It was dark in the office and I didn’t want to put the light on to draw attention to myself. I couldn’t see the tests anywhere. Drat it! Where were they?
    Then I spotted the filing cabinet in the corner. It had four drawers, just like Dad’s. Easy! I’d filed stuff for him before, heaps of times. Lucky for me the key was in the keyhole!
    Everything in the top drawer seemed to be about sport. I carefully closed it, lifting as I pushed to stop the metal creaking. I held my breath and pulled gently on the second drawer. Thankfully, it slid out smoothly. Nothing to do with maths tests in this drawer either.
    I slid out the third drawer. This one looked more promising: mid-year reports, spelling-level sheets, parent-teacher interviews, spelling tests – maths tests ! I yanked out the folder and opened it on the little table beside the filing cabinet.
    There were three bundles of papers and the bottom one contained the tests we’d done this morning. Yes!
    Brody’s paper was on the top, just as I’d expected. I was about to look at it, when the main classroom door opened.
    I frantically looked around for somewhere to hide. Towards the back of the room was a large cardboard box full of some kind of old clothes – it was hard to tell exactly what they were without the light on. I could hear Miss Beech’s voice getting closer as she spoke to someone.
    Not daring to close the drawer, I hopped in the box, still clutching the pile of maths tests, and arranged the clothes over the top of my head.
    The door opened and the light flickered on.
    â€˜That’s odd,’ said Miss Beech, slamming the drawer shut, ‘I could have sworn I closed that.’
    â€˜Are you sure you’ve got one in my size, Mildred?’ asked a man’s voice. ‘I’m not exactly small around the middle these days. Betty keeps nagging me to go on a diet.’
    â€˜Stop worrying, Ken. I’ve got basketball tops for all sizes – midgets through to giants. They’re all in this box here.’

Chapter 15

    I could hardly breathe. I wanted to shrink and become a little ant at the bottom of the box. And stay an ant, just crawling around in the dirt all day, so I never had to deal with Miss Beech or Brody Callahan ever again.
    Two sets of footsteps came closer to the box. I was trapped. Any moment now I was going to get sprung and there was nothing I could do. I closed my eyes and held my breath.
    Then I